Via Crucis

Tonight was the Via Crucis in the streets of Madrid. Among each station were the oldest and most beautiful and venerated statues in Spain. They came from churches all over, including Cintruenigo where our pilgrims stayed last week.

I cannot get over the raw beauty of the Via Crucis everytime I attend a World Youth Day. The live event unfolds before our eyes, and we weep for the Savior of the world as he is crucified before our eyes. This morning at Catechesis, Archbishop of New York, His Grace Timothy Dolan told us a story about a small church in a rural area that was very old and lacking in attendance. The diocese had no choice but to shut it down. The parish members, not wanting to give away this beautiful wooden church to some organization or developer to destroy or refurbish, asked if they could burn it to the ground in a ceremonial way. The church was made of the finest wood and would burn evenly to the ground. So it was done; the volunteer fire department arrived at the site and after a short ceremony, the community watched the church burn to ash. What was left was the nails that held the foundations together, stacked on the ground. The nailis that held the church together are the same nails that bound Christ to the Cross. The nails of the cross are what hold us together, in His weakness we find strength. We are a broken people, we have been taken from our native countries, blessed in our youth, broken in our weaknesses and shared among eachother for the sake of pilgrimage.

I hope you are all feeling this huge wave of Mercy and Grace that we are sending you from Madrid.